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Alameda County Sheriff's Department officers exit the Valley Manor Community Care Home on Apricot Way in Castro Valley, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. Residents of the home were evacuated on Saturday evening after the facility was shut down by the state on Thursday, and only several staff members, including a cook, remained.

Police tape is seen across the sign for the Valley Manor Community Care Home on Apricot Way in Castro Valley, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. Residents of the home were evacuated on Saturday evening after the facility was shut down by the state on Thursday, and only several staff members, including a cook, remained.

CASTRO VALLEY — Authorities were aghast this weekend when they found 14 assisted-living home patients virtually abandoned, with bedridden seniors — including amputees and residents with dementia — all but left to fend for themselves for two days.

Most of the staff at Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley had apparently walked away Thursday after the home was shut down by the California Department of Social Services. Three workers, including a janitor and two cooks, stayed behind, but finally grew alarmed and called the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday. That’s when the remaining seniors were taken to other homes or hospitals. They were deemed in satisfactory physical condition by Sunday.

Now a bewildered Sheriff’s Office has opened an investigation of the matter as a possible criminal case.

“How did this happen?” asked Sheriff’s Office spokesman J.D. Nelson. He said deputies armed with a search warrant were busy inspecting the facility, which for the past half-decade — and especially in the last few months — has shown signs of trouble.

Social Services officials alleged that a patient who was not supposed to be let outside went missing twice this month, for a total of eight days. A diabetic patient received a sugar-laced drink. Medications were not handed out correctly in the facility deemed dirty and in disrepair. Patients were locked inside their rooms. Staff turnover was high, and employees did not receive proper criminal background checks.

On Sunday, neighbors reported police and ambulances coming in and out frequently, and family members of the patients said there have been consistent problems with the staff.

“I can tell you, we’ve had some history at this facility,” said Social Services spokesman Michael Weston, “and it’s been going on for quite some time.”

Once the order to temporarily shut the facility went out Tuesday, local authorities — the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Alameda County Adult Protective Services and the state’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman — should have been notified, said Nelson. But the terrible situation came to the attention of the Sheriff’s Office only after the three remaining employees at Valley Springs Manor called dispatchers.

“Apparently,” Weston explained, “most of the facility staff left behind reached a point where they felt they were unable to care for them.”

As Social Services officials seek to permanently shut down the facility, their suspension order also included two other facilities, one in Oakland and one in Modesto. The complaint says all three were operated by Herminigilda “Hilda” N. Manuel and Mary Julleah N. Manuel, or HNM Enterprises, LLC.

Burton Nash, of San Leandro, said he was stunned to get a phone call Saturday that emergency officials had removed his elderly parents from the home and taken them to a San Leandro hospital.

“We were looking for a new place for them, but we didn’t expect them to have to move so soon,” Nash said. “We were concerned the home didn’t have enough staffing.”

During the three months his parents lived at the assisted living residence, Nash said the facility was dirty. He heard an employee protest that her boss was ordering her to give medication she was not authorized to administer to residents.

He said he is making calls to find a new home for his parents.

Valley Manor charged between $4,000 and $6,000 per patient per month, according to Nash, depending on the level of care given.

“Things have gone downhill lately,” said Ben Simbra, who lives in the neighborhood of neatly landscaped homes near the care facility. “Sometimes it seemed there was a fire truck or sheriff’s car up there at least once a day.”

Neighbors said lost or disoriented people were walking away from the care home, and one this year tried to start a small fire near the facility. Simbra said there was turnover in staff and that familiar faces that neighbors were used to dealing with were no longer there.

“You feel bad because you want there to be good care for people as they age,” Simbra said. “I’m part of the baby boomer generation. We are going to need places to stay.”